Cape Town – A study released by Mercer on Tuesday showed that the capital city of Chad, N’Djamena, ranked as the most expensive city for expatriates, while Zambia’s Lusaka came in as the least expensive.
The New York-based consulting firm conducted a global survey in light of the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, which showed that half of the world’s 10 most expensive cities for expatriates are in Asia.
N’Djamena, which earned top spot for Africa, ranked 13th on the global list ahead of major developed cities such as New York, London, Copenhagen, Sydney and Milan.
According to the statement released by Mercer, the study is meant to provide insight for multinationals looking to relocate and for human resource leaders to attract the right skills when recruiting as more expensive destinations become more costly.
“More organisations are introducing virtual assignments, where an employee performs the same job remotely as they would do if they were to relocate to the host location,” said Stevens Kawoubouga, a senior associate at Mercer Africa.
“For example, a professional based in Ghana would be able to perform tasks and be responsible for operations in Kenya… Alternatively, organisations could start hiring more local foreign talents to fill in the gaps in their talent acquisition programmes,” he said.
Kawoubouga added that N’Djamena remains the most expensive city in Africa for another year as the Chadian economy continues to recover from the pressures of a plummeting oil price and growing debts.
The capital city of Zambia, Lusaka, has become a more attractive destination for expatriates and is currently the cheapest city in Africa, followed by Tunisia’s Tunis and Windhoek in Namibia.
Meanwhile, Nigeria is slowly recovering from its worst recession in four decades and the city of Lagos came in second as the most expensive city for expatriates, followed by Libreville (Gabon), Abidjan (Ivory Coast) and Bangui (Central African Republic).
In South Africa, Cape Town remains a more expensive city to live in than Johannesburg, and both cities moved up in the global rankings to 178 and 184, respectively.
African News Agency (ANA)
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